Fire Twist
by artKuzon
Summary: Zuko accidentally wins the Agni Kai, Ozai looks for the avatar and a new enemy is targeting spirits.
1. Chapter 1

Ozai woke up happy. He felt optimistic about the day. There was going to be a war meeting in the afternoon. If he was lucky he was going to sacrifice some troops and maybe, before that, he'd have the chance to banish a couple of servants. The only thing that could ruin such a perfect day was that useless brat he had to call son.

It was time for breakfast and a servant almost spilled tea on him. Yes! "What's your name servant?" he asked without showing his excitement. "K-kuzon my Fire Lord" answered Kuzon. The servant was so scared, it felt so good seeing him like that. "Don't worry Kuzon, mistakes happen" oh yes, that look of relief and hope on the face of the servant, it was going to be delightful. "But not around me, you are banished". "B-but..." and before he could say anything else he was taken away by the guards. It was going to be a good day.

Finally, the moment he was waiting for, the war meeting. But what in Agni's name was Zuko doing there. What a useless waste of space. Why couldn't Zuko be more like his perfect weapo-... daughter. The meeting was quite boring until general Bujing proposed to sacrifice some new recruits as a distraction. Just what he was hoping for! "You can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them?". Did he seriously spoke out of turn?! It was so embarassing... wait... What a perfect opportunity! Such an act of disrespect could only mean one thing. Ah! The brat accepted without hesitation, but he misunderstood.

The arena was very crowded, almost everyone in the palace was there. Ozai turned to face his son. There was some blood from an Agni Kai that took place in the morning. Why was it still there? Someone was going to be banished for this. The look on Zuko's face was priceless. Zuko did not understand he would have to duel him. "Please, Father. I only had the Fire Nation's best interest at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn!". If only someone invented some sort of videorecording device to immortalize the moment. Ozai was going to enjoy this. "I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son". He could not deny his son was loyal, too bad he was not perfect enough. "Rise and fight, Prince Zuko!" he said "I won't fight you" answered Zuko. He started to walk towards his son and produced some fire in his hand. "You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher". He waited so long to say it. But before he could end the duel he slipped on the blood. He fell. He tried to stop his fall with his hands but he forgot one was literally on fire. He lost control of that fire. His arm burned and he screamed. So much agony. Zuko even tried to help. "Stay away!". He stumbled back and falled outside of the ring... He had lost.

Ozai didn't know that Kuzon was the one responsible for cleaning the arena.

_Three years later_

Almost Trhee years of fruitless search for the avatar. But Ozai wasn't one to give up so easily. He had to flee in shame from the Fire Nation. But he was going to find the avatar, he was going to use him to defeat his own nation and in the end he was going to destroy him too. Fire Lord Ozai died during the Agni Kai against his son, but he was going to be reborn as Phoenix King Ozai!

Suddenly he saw a light like no other coming from the South Pole. He found the avatar.


	2. Chapter 2

After all those years he found the avatar. Or at least he hoped so, if that light wasn't what he thought it would be embarassing. At least no one was watching or reading what he was doing... right? The only problem was reaching the spot where he had seen the light. It was only about twenty meters from him, but between them there was a thick wall of ice. And he wouldn't commit the mistake of shooting lightning at it, not after what happened last time. He simply propelled himself with firebending, the wall wasn't that high. But when he landed on the edge, the ice broke under his feet and he fell in cold waters. '_Ocean, you peasant, how dare you be this cold, I'll kill you one day_'. He propelled himself again, with more power, this time succeding in landing on the top of the wall and setting his small boat on fire. Oh well, if the avatar didn't have a mean of transportation he would die of starvation considering his supplies burned with his boat. "Why did we sto-... what in Agni's name is that thing?". Damn it! Fire Nation... wait, he knew that voice. He rushed to the side of the ice. Below him he could see a ship and "Princess". His daughter was there, yes it must be her. "We hit an iceberg that was hidden underwater, the ship didn't take any damage but the iceberg cracked and we found this kid and that ..." "flying bison" finished the bald kid. That kid looked ridiculous, bald head, circus clothes and were those tatoos? Why didn't he thought about that before! He could have made those on Zuko while he was sleeping, it would have been hilarious! Could baldy be the avatar? But he was so young. "So you are a princess! cool, my name is A- a-" and then the boy sneezed jumping at the height of Ozai. "Aang" finished arrowhead while landing. "mh, an airbender, looks like we found the avatar" "how did yo-" but Aang was cut off by a guard "Princess, over there, look!". Everyone turned towards him. Oh oh, he had to play it well "My dear..." Blood and ashes! He couldn't remember her name! He was so used to call her weapon in his mind that in this three years he forgot her name. "YOU" and then electricity surged through him. Everything went black.

He dreamed the Fire Nation, him on the throne, his (ex)wife next to him (he didn't love her, but he did not hate her), Zuko dead and the avatar BURNING WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD WHILE HE LAUGHED AT THE SUFFERING OF THE INFERIOR LIFE FORMS (Also known as people).Ah ahaha ahahah AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

A child's voice woke him up. "Good, you are awake". When he opened his eyes he could see a bald head. Ah! No one could rival his beautiful hair. Wait he was the "Avatar!" "yes, how did you understand it? Never mind, that girl shot you with lightning and I'm taking you to my home, the southern air temple, you'll like it there. The monks are good healers, not that you need one, you seem fine to me". His home? The southern air temple was his home? Oh Agni, he really hoped he wouldn't have to explain why he burned the temple to ashes because he thought it was fun to disrespect dead people by destroying their old homes.


	3. Chapter 3

Ozai could survive lightning and a glowing destructive kid. What he couldn't do was comforting a crying boy. His daughter didn't cry in front of him and when Zuko did Ozai was often the reason. But if he wanted to use the avatar he had to try. "Don't worry, they didn't suffer too much. Death by fire is painful only until the nerves are incinerated". At that he cried harder. Oh no, the brat hugged him and buried his face in his clothes! Did he want to be hugged back?! Seriously? The kid was like eleven or twelve. Adults never hugged Ozai when he was younger, not even his parents, and he became brave and strong. Iroh had always received affection and became a silly old man. 'Lu tEn dIeD I'm sO sAd'.

Sigh, fine. He stiffly caressed the kid's bald head. It felt like torture, but manipulation was a slow and gradual process.

Worst mistake ever made since Zuko! They stayed like that for at least ten minutes, the avatar was still sobbing and he couldn't feel his hand anymore.

"See, this is why the Fire Nation needs to be stopped, they destroyed your home. They almost killed every southern waterbender. They almost conquered the world. They brought pain and suffering to a lot of people, they are evil" said Ozai. Aang wiped away his tears "I-if there are people like you it means that there is still good in it. They aren't evil, just misguided. I will save the world, Fire Nation included". Great, the avatar was one of those nauseating pure hearted fools.

_Meanwhile in a secret location_

Princess Azula was able to gather five of the best bounty hunters in the world. June, the most famous between them, Bo, a lavabender, Ataksak, a non-bender from the northern water tribe, she escaped from home and became the only swordmaster that could rival Piandao, Marcello, a shapeshifting spirit banished from the spirit world, and himself, Lord Explosion Murder. It wasn't his real name, he read that name in a book and decided to use it. He was tall and intimidating, but he wasn't tough. He was really shy and he was scared of talking to other people. The reason he stopped talking and started killing was that with less people on the planet the risk of social interactions would decrease.

The princess started to speak. "I gathered you here because you are the best at what you do. My father, Ozai, is traveling with the avatar. You must find them and kill Ozai. I would do it myself but the Fire Lord might suspect something. Don't hurt the avatar. If you fail to keep this a secret I'll hunt you down. Fire Lord Zuko can't know that father has returned".

_Meanwhile in the spirit world_

An unusual sight could be seen in the spirit world. Koh the Face Stealer was running away from a human. He was running as fast as he could. He never felt so much fear, he never felt fear in general. Fear was something he loved seeing on his victims' faces, but feeling it was horrible. The human wasn't even walking, he seemed still, but every time Koh looked behind to see if he was safe the human was closer. And so Koh decided to never look back again, but when he arrived in his lair the human was in front of him. "Koh Koh Koh, did you really think you could pick up a fight with me? I will make you feel what's like feeling a part of yourself being torn off". All the faces Koh stole seemed to scream in unison.

_Back at the temple_

"No, we can't go to Kyoshi island" said Ozai. "Why?" "I kind of killed their sacred giant sea serpent (_and zapped the chief of the village but I can't tell you that_)".


	4. Chapter 4

"Ok now it's your turn to tell a funny story sifu hotman" said the avatar cheerfully. "No". "Pretty pleeeeease". Ozai wanted to commit suicide, but he had to mantain the boy's trust. "Fine, but only if you promise to stop calling me sifu hotman". Aang nodded. "A long time ago there was a kingdom and his king. The people really loved their king, and the king would have done anything for his people. Unfortunately he was powerless against the assassin that killed him in his sleep. The End ". The kid stared at him. Surely he loved his story. He loved it too, a story that ends with someone (else) dying was always fun. "This story sucks sifu hotman". A small part of himself wanted to kill this bald child "Stop calling me that! You promised". "I didn't promise anything. I simply moved my head up and down" said the avatar smiling innocently. Ozai smirked, the boy had potential as a manipulator, he reminded him of Azula (he was able to remember her name). It was almost a shame that he was going to kill him in the end. "Come on sifu hotman, you must know a decent story". Almost.

Several minutes later they landed near Omashu to let the bison rest. "I'm so hungry, we could go to Omashu. They make a-". Nope, no, no Omashu. One too many crazy kings. Ozai electrocuted a raven eagle that was flying over them. "Here, eat this, it's already cooked" he said holding the dead bird. Aang looked at him uneasily and said "I don't eat meat, for us all life is precious". That made no sense, other living beings where just a mean to an end (for example peasants were really good as moving targets).

"But it's dead when you eat it"

"But to eat it someone must kill it first"

"But if you don't eat it, it will eat you"

"I don't think that birds eat people"

"Tell it to that stupid owl in that stupid library"

"What?"

"Nothing... Fine, we can go to Omashu but we must be extra careful. Fire Nation troops and Omashu's police force can't recognize us. After this we are going straight to the Fire Nation, we will find your waterbending master there". "Ok, last detour, promise". It was the third time the avatar made the same promise '_I hope for yout hat this is the last time. Or I'll start from scratch with the next avatar_'.

Lord explosion murder saw the death of his beloved raven eagle Riku. He never felt so much pain in his life.

_Omashu, near the palace_

Jet, the new Fire Lord is good. Jet, they built schools, hospitals, roads. Jet, we don't need to fight anymore. **How could they forget?** Did they not remember everything they had to endure? How the Fire Nation burned their villages, their homes, their lands, _**their families?!**_ It was all Omashu's fault. It was the first city to fall to the lies of the new death lord. Other cities followed soon after. Sure, they got technological advancement and stuff, but at what cost? They knelt down and swore loyalty to the monsters. They chose to disrespect all the victims of the war! _**THEY CHOSE TO DISRESPECT JET'S PARENTS!**_ They were going to pay, king Bumi was going to dBOOM

Explosions and screams could be heard from behind them. Ozai and the avatar looked behind to see a bulky man combustionbending. The former Fire Lord saw a combustion bender before, but never fought one. An explosion destroyed a building. That guy was powerful! Finally a worthy opponent! A manic grin appeared on his face as adrenaline spread through his body. Explosive baldy fired again, but Ozai intercepted the beam with lightning. He didn't notice how he saved an orphanage full of children. It was just to assert lightings' dominance over explosions. Howewer Aang and some orphans saw everything and not knowing Ozai's intentions they thought he was a hero.

Lord explosion murder was scared. He couldn't make explosions fast enough. '_Mommy, help me!_'. But mommy never came.

_Fifteen minutes later_

The bison stole his trick shot kill! The bison ju- Other screams. What was happening?Oh, a wave of children was screaming and running towards Ozai. Easy, he defeated the combustion bender, he could obliterate a group of kids. Ozai tried to firebend. He was still affected by the adrenaline of the duel and didn't think of the consequences of such an act. But there were no consequences, because there was no fire. Damn it! He depleted his chi with all those lightnings. Panic seized him. He tried to bend again, but nothing happened and the deadly wave came closer and closer. "Our hero!" they were screaming. He fell. "AANG HELP ME!" he was able to say before he was submerged by the kids.

The sight was heartwarming for Aang. The orphans that Ozai saved came out of the orphanage to hug him. He knew Ozai wasn't into hugs, but he was pinned down. He couldn't escape the children's gratitude.


	5. Chapter 5

Ozai had been thinking since Omashu. Under the psychological trauma of the incident with the orphans there was something else. '_Being called hero, it almost felt good_'. Suddenly an harpoon almost hit the bison. "Pirates!".

_Unknown location_

June wasn't used to travel by ship, especially on a shapeshifting bounty hunter spirit shapeshifted into a fire nation battleship. She was on deck while Ataksak and Bo were inside. "So June how did you become a bounty hunter?" asked Marcello. "I don't want to be rude, but it's none of your buisness". It's not that it was a tragic story or anything. She simply wasn't a person that talked about her life. "Don't worry darling... Mamma mia! What the hell are you two doing!". June was confused. Firstly she didn't know what mamma mia meant and secondly she and Nyla were doing nothing strange. "Stop doing that inside me!". After a short amount of time Ataksak and Bo came out on deck. They seemed very embarassed. Well it was going to be interesting.

_Fire Nation_

A war council was being held. It would be disrespectful to interrupt, but Azula didn't care. The guards opened the doors for her, they didn't want to become her training partners. "Zuzu! I need to speak with uncle. Where is he?". Everyone stared at her. "A-Azula you're back... Hey! Don't call me Zuzu in front of the generals!". "Zuzu, my time is precious, where is uncle?". A couple of generals snickered. His brother looked at them with a (not) very menacing expression (maybe, in another timeline, with a scar it would have been a decent angry glare). He sighed "He is at the palace's tearoom". Azula walked out of the war council. Maybe they should call it something different, after all there were very few battles nowadays. She arrived at the tearoom. It was bigger than the throne secretly declared tea appreciation day and built the place. They had taken a vacantion on Ember Island while Iroh was at home as Zuko's substitute. The look on Zuzu's face when they discovered it was one of the wonders of the world (she was even able to put it on history books. His brother didn't know that kids in school studied it). "Ah, my niece. Welcome back. Did you like the South Pole this time?". "It was bearable. The chief is happy with the new alliance, but my stay at the Water Tribe isn't what I came to talk about. We have a problem". Iroh didn't seem surprised "if you're referring to the avatar the sages already told us about his or her return. Don't worry about it, I'm sure we can convince the avatar about the good you're brother is d-". Azula cut him off "No uncle. Father is back and is with the avatar. I... I'm worried uncle. The avatar is just a child, what if father manipulates him? What if father manipulates Zuko? He still thinks Ozai is a good person, I don't want him to suffer because of that monster". "This may be a problem, I'll see what I can do".

_Meigong river_

The avatar was angry, really angry. The pirates tried to capture Appa. Ozai was going to use this anger. "It's ok Aang. If you want to kill him do it. He wronged you. Don't see it as revenge, but as justice". The avatar was taken over by rage. He prepared a finishing blow, but stopped at the last moment. "I... I can't do it". Ozai knew he wouldn't do it, but at least he desired the kill, even if it was for a small time. It was progress

_2 days later_

"Hello Aang, I'm Hama. I will be your waterbending teacher".


	6. Chapter 6

"What happened, why is he like this?" asked Ozai. "I don't know, one moment we were pl-... training and the next he was glowing". "You stupid water peasant, if you had acted more like a teacher and less like his grandmother he wouldn't waste time like this!". Hama snapped "Shut up ash maker. He needs to have fun just as much as he needs training. He is just a kid". Ozai was skeptical, he didn't have fun as a kid if you don't count when he intentionally set his teacher on fire by accident "Didn't you kidnap children?" "It was different, they were Fire Nation. Besides, they all escaped because the handcuffs were too large".

Aang returned from his spirit trip. Gra- Hama and sifu hotman were bickering. Good, he had to make a dangerous trip. He sneakily hopped on Appa and flew away.

"We wouldn't have destroyed your home if you barbarians weren't so weak!" "Well we... is that Aang?". Ozai turned to see the avatar flying away with the bison. The little sh-"He left a note ". 'I'm going to an island and will return in a few days, bye!'. Ozai screamed.

Kuzon was walking home from work. Being banished was the best thing that happened to him. Being a servant in the royal palace was horrible. Royals were crazy. Deal with the assassin servant, test this fireproof armor that isn't fireproof servant, taste these poisonous mushrooms servant and worst of all: be humiliated at pai sho by me while I drink oceans of tea and say strange things about white lotus tiles. And the palace was haunted by a kid sized blue spirit, but no one believed him. After the banishment he stumbled upon a village full of pirates and criminals. He was attacked by a pirate but he defended himself. Soon after that all the criminal world of the village wanted to kill him. He easily defeated everyone. After all, the assassins the servants had to deal with were much better (not good enough for the royal guards though, "I'm not some simple guard, I won't deal with some low class assassin, my talent would be wasted against anyone who isn't a top ranked bountyhunter"). He accidentaly became the hero of the city and met the love of his life and they soon had a child. "I see, this time you have a better life", said someone behind him. He looked back with a puzzled expression. It was a mistake. Before Kuzon could even blink a human figure stole his face and took away his faceless body.

The bounty hunters were watching from afar Ozai and an old lady arguing. "We found him".


	7. Chapter 7

There was an epic fight scene were Ozai was able to defend himself against the combo attacks of the two bounty hunters. Meanwhile Hama was left alone because she was chilling while watching the moon rise. At the end of the epic fight scene Ozai was driven into a corner, but before Bo could unleash his ultimate move Hama bloodbent him and Ataksak thanks to the full moon. Marcello joined the fight "bloodbending, I see. I'm sorry darling, I have no blood". Hama was shocked, how did that talking tank-train know about it? Hama's train of thoughts was interrupted by Marcello morfing into some sort of big metallic humanoid walking armor. "Spiritbots, assemble!".He missed so much his catchphrase. It took years to come up with a decent one. He and his old pal Old Iron always used it, at least before the banishment. "Spirit what?"asked someone. The fight continued. Ozai's lightning could do nothing against the metallic armor. The only way was to hit the spirit inside it because lightning could mess up spirit energy. It was going to be difficult.

SPIRIT WORLD

A human was standing in front of the first nemesis of the avatar, Vaatu. "I finally have the chance of meeting you". The human didn't say anything. "Are you going to do to me what you did to the others?" said the dark spirit in a mocking tone. Vaatu laughed, but in reality he was really scared of the person standing in front of him. "No, you will merge with him" said the human, pointing to a faceless Kuzon "and you will attack the Northern Water Tribe, but you will not hurt the Moon and the Ocean spirits. Before attacking, wait for someone that can put up a fight". "Why don't you do it? You are more powerful than me" asked Vaatu. "If you survive, you'll know" .

CRESCENT ISLAND

When Aang arrived at the temple he expected to find someone, but he only found creepy statues. The creepy part was the fact that the statues seemed to be running away from something and that pure fear was plastered on the stone faces. Now the boy was talking with Roku. The past avatar explained what happened one hundred years before. "So I have to stop the Fire Lord before Sozin comet comes back?" asked Aang. "No, the new Fire Lord seems like a good person, I think you should tr- " but Roku was interrupted by an horrible and dark feeling. Aang felt it too "What... what was that?". The fact that his predecessor was scared didn't help to calm the young avatar "Vaatu is free, now we are connected, I will be able to explain later. Now you need to reach your allies, I will bring you to them in an istant" said Roku "But how? They are really far away". "In the avatar plane I found this crystal, it's called Speed of Plot. No, I don't know why it's called this way. It's not like we are part of a fictional story... probably" Aang just stared at his past life with a confused look. "Anyway, it can only be used once before it breaks, now go".

###

Ozai was almost able to defeat Marcello. With the hottest fire he ever made he was able to open an hole in the metal armor, but before he could zap the spirit he was paralyzed. June finally decided to join the battle. They were going to end their target when Marcello felt something horrible "Santo cielo! Don't kill him we will need all the help we can get". "Help for what?" asked June. "Vaatu is free" "Who?" "A spirit with world ending powers". Ozai needed the world. No world, no ruling it or setting it on fire. He would help saving it, just this time. He just hoped it was the last time he had to do something heroic or his evil dictator reputation would be ruined.

He didn't know that in the Fire Nation Zuko made everyone think that he was the best person ever.


End file.
